The big fights, the best fighters and the colorful characters in the world of boxing.

Tuesday, June 3, 2014

Opinions and Observations: Froch-Groves II

Oh to
land that perfect punch! We've practiced it in the mirror. We visualize
knocking someone down, rendering an opponent incapacitated with just one shot. What it
must feel like! It's the transcendent melding of technique, timing, power and
torque. I'll admit, I've never landed it. I know the feeling of crushing a
baseball or hitting a golf ball 275 yards dead center down the fairway (happens
infrequently) but I've never experienced the sensation that Carl Froch felt on
Saturday against George Groves in the eighth round. And I probably never will.
After the fight, Froch admitted that it was the best punch he had ever thrown or
landed. It must have felt like a million bucks. But to be honest, that would be
minimizing things. That punch was worth far more than $1M to Froch.

Until
that point, the rematch between the grizzled veteran Froch and the upstart
Groves was neck-and-neck. The opening rounds were oddly tentative, with both
fighters seeming tight to me, as if they were chastened by their initial encounter in November when Froch was knocked down in the first round but
rallied to score a stoppage in the ninth. On Saturday, Groves tried to
conserve energy while Froch didn't want to expose himself to Groves' right
hand.

When he
let his hands go, Groves still beat Froch to the punch; however, it was only
one shot at a time – just a jab or a right hand. Froch stuck with his jab and
waited for opportunities to flurry and roughhouse Groves against the ropes.
Many of the rounds were close, Groves' clean, single shots vs. Froch's
intermittent combinations where a number of shots were blocked.

In
Froch's corner, there was one piece of crucial information that I picked up
from his trainer, Rob McCracken. He kept saying, "Close the gap." And
when the final sequence of the bout is replayed, it's easy now to see how Froch
won the battle of geography. With Groves' back to the ropes, Froch feinted
the right hand, then followed through with a rather pedestrian left hook and
finished with the smashing right hand. The left hook was thrown only with the
intention of landing the right hand behind it.

This begs
the question: why was Groves spending so much time along the ropes in the
rematch? With the faster hands and feet, Groves had advantages in the center of
the ring and yet there he was letting Froch tee off on him from close range.

The slow
motion replay of the knockout told the story. Although Groves picked off
Froch's left hook, his face was 100% exposed to the follow up right hand. His
left hand was down by his waist and he belatedly tried to counter the shot but
it was too late.

The sequence also illustrated Groves' physical state at that moment of the fight. There were two reasons why Groves' left hand was so low, and neither was a good one: 1.
His technique started to fall apart because he had stamina issues. 2. He was
protecting against another flurry to the body. Regardless of which reason explained the
low left hand, Groves' bad hand placement highlighted Froch's success in the fight. Throughout
the bout, Groves reacted very poorly to Froch's body work. (This also occurred
in their first match.) During his flurries, Froch unloaded with left and right
hooks to the body unmercifully. As the fight progressed, Groves used his legs
much more sparingly and the bout became a stationary battle. Again,
Groves won a number of rounds, but, like the first match, he resorted to
fighting Froch's fight. Groves' stamina was a real issue in both bouts, and
he lacked the wherewithal or conditioning to stick with his game plan. By the time the
final blow was struck on Saturday, Froch's body work had done its job. Groves was either
gassed or forced under duress into a technical mistake. And that was the
fight.

In the
lead-up to the rematch, I switched my prediction a number of times. In the end, I
believed that Froch would find a way to win. Essentially, I was siding with who
I felt was the smarter fighter. In my experience following boxing, when the
talent spread is fairly equal between the combatants, the smarter one usually
prevails (there are some notable exceptions). I hadn't liked the way that Groves had conducted himself during the final few rounds of the first fight
and I felt like his Ring IQ was not quite up to Froch's level.

Ultimately,
Froch was willing to give up a few rounds to make the fight go his way (prior to the knockout he was up one round on two cards and down one on the other). In his
estimation (and I agree with him), once the fight was a battle at close range,
it was only a matter of time until he was victorious. Groves did a lot of
things well on Saturday, but ring generalship wasn't one of them.

Finally,
one must remark on the character and heart of Groves. After getting blown to
smithereens by the final shot, Groves still tried like hell to get up. Even
with his left leg bent completely under his body, he somehow found a way to
make it to his feet. It was an admirable showing of guts and determination. Thankfully, ref Charlie Fitch saved Groves, who was in terrible shape, from
sustaining further damage. Nevertheless, that moment illustrates Groves' desire
to be a champion. Now, he must learn how to condition his body and mind to make
it so.

Groves
needs some easier fights, perhaps a sagacious assistant trainer and a lot of
film study, but the tools are there for him to be a major factor in the super middleweight
division. Hopefully he understands that at age 26, time is on his side. If he
takes three fights to build himself back up, that world title crown could be
his. However, if he insists on immediately going after big game, his
development could be forever stunted. There are a lot of experienced, tough cats at 168 (Ward, Abraham, Kessler, Stieglitz and Bika).
Groves needs to gain some more experience in the ring before he is ready for
those challenges.

As for
Froch, there probably won't be a better moment in his career than Saturday's
finale. With the roar of the London crowd after the knockout, Froch finally received universal
praise and respect from English fight fans. Having come of age at the tail end
of Calzaghe's reign with little fanfare and a lesser promoter, Froch was deemed an unworthy
heir to a British-dominated division with legendary names like Eubank, Benn and
Calzaghe. He was dismissed as crude and slow, however unfairly.

At the
world-level, Froch has revealed himself to be much more than a barroom brawler, but old
stereotypes often die hard. On Saturday, those demons were put to
rest for good. That final sequence demonstrated how clever he can be in
the ring. Sure, he likes to mix it up, but his willingness to trade often masks
his substantial ring intelligence.

Quieting
his detractors and quashing the surrounding negativity (some of which was his own doing), Froch
experienced only glory on Saturday. He will always have that perfect punch in
front of 80,000 screaming fight fans. May 31, 2014 will forever be his night in British boxing
lore.

**********************************************

Wrapping
up some other action throughout the weekend, there were some shady, shady
happenings during the featherweight title bout between Nonito Donaire and
Simpiwe Vetyeka in Macau, China. Donaire won a fifth-round technical decision,
as the fight was stopped on cuts. However, the match was full of controversy,
incompetence and questionable decision making.

Donaire
was the challenger, but he was clearly the Top Rank house fighter and crowd
favorite. He sustained a nasty cut over his left eyelid early in the fight (it
was unclear if ref Luis Pabon ruled the cut as a result of a punch or a clash of heads,
more on him in a bit). Donaire proceeded to paw at the cut throughout the third
and fourth round, even ceasing to fight at points resulting in Pabon compliantly leading him to the ringside physician for an examination. In boxing protocol, only the
ref or the doctor can decide when to suspend action for a physician
examination, yet Pabon responded to Donaire's unwillingness to fight with
several trips to the neutral corner.

In the
fourth round, Donaire scored a knockdown with a left hook. After the
bell ended in the fourth, the fight was technically official. Pabon then
proceeded to call off the match immediately after the start of the fifth –
Donaire was awarded the decision victory on the judges' scorecards.

Now,
Pabon could have stopped the fight in the fourth, leading to a no-contest. He
chose a moment to end it where the house fighter would almost certainly be
given the win. Pabon also displayed indecisiveness about ending the fight and a
farcical amount of favoritism to Donaire by allowing him to take breaks from the oncoming pressure
fighter. At least Donaire was gracious enough to offer Vetyeka a rematch after
the fight, which was very competitive. It was a dreadful way for Donaire to win
another title belt and his performance did not scream "champion."

Luis
Pabon has caused havoc on the international boxing scene for many years. I
refer to him as the Puerto Rican Laurence Cole, for wherever he goes, bad
decision making follows. Who could forget his failure to police
Klitschko-Povetkin, his arbitrary point deductions in Allakhverdiev-M'Baye and
his refusal to let Marco Huck work on the inside against Povetkin? Mark Ortega,
of Behind the Gloves, brilliantly referred to Saturday's action as Vetyeka
getting "Paboned." And there's a lot of truth there. Perhaps there
isn't a more incompetent big-time referee in the sport.

As for
Donaire, for this fight he reenlisted his father as head trainer and promised a
better performance than his last two outings against Guillermo
Rigondeaux and Vic Darchinyan. On Saturday, I saw many of the same signs of the
sluggish, late-period Donaire, the one who waits for one-punch knockouts and
loads up with left hooks. He put a nice combination together in the fourth
which led to the knockdown, but he was also beaten to the punch by Vetyeka
throughout the fight and was hit pretty cleanly.

At one
point in time, Donaire was considered a top-five fighter in the sport. But his
years of dominance have led to several bad habits in the ring. In addition, his
insistence in looking for a way out of Saturday's fight speaks to
a lack of mental toughness, which was also in evidence against Rigondeaux.

There are
some real talents at featherweight. I wouldn't necessarily count Donaire out
against any of them, but I also don't feel particularly confident in that
statement. He rarely puts punches together these days and if his desire isn't
there, more bad fortune might befall him in the ring, and soon.

On the
Donaire-Vetyeka undercard, one of the rising stars of the featherweight
division, Nicholas Walters of Jamaica, made his second title defense against
Vic Darchinyan, scoring a brutal knockout in the fifth round with a vicious,
compact left hook. Unknown to most in the boxing world a year ago, Walters in
now 24-0 with 20 knockouts, and the power is real – not merely a function of
weak opposition. Against Darchinyan, he scored three knockdowns, one with his
right uppercut and two with his left hook. He didn't even land his best punch
that cleanly in the fight, his straight right hand.

With
three knockout weapons, a 73-inch reach and a lot of athleticism, Walters may
soon become the class of the featherweight division (however, there are a
number of intriguing candidates for that position). He still can be a little
raw when delivering his punches and I have yet to see him think his way through
a tough fight, but he is certainly one to watch. Top Rank has found a real
diamond in the rough here. Expect to see him on HBO soon.

And on
the Froch-Groves II undercard, James DeGale finally put together a great
performance, dispatching Brandon Gonzales in four rounds. Although DeGale
always had excellent hand and foot speed, an awkward style and a solid jab, he frequently displayed two glaring deficiencies in his pro career: he
could become passive and he didn't often sit down on his shots.

Fighting
with something to prove on Saturday, DeGale stormed out of the gates in the
first round with power shots. Switch-hitting and using
his athletic advantages, he flummoxed Gonzales in the opening frame. After a
close second, DeGale took over in the third, crushing Gonzales with hard left hands
and fast combinations. He eventually sent Gonzales down twice before the match
was stopped in the fourth (too early probably, but hey, it was a British ref,
it happens).

If things
had broken differently for DeGale, the former Olympic gold medalist, it could
have been him fighting in the main event. He lost a razor-thin decision to
Groves in 2011. Since that defeat, he had numerous promotional issues, injuries
and uneven performances. Now aligned with promotional powerhouse Matchroom
Sport, DeGale has spoken about his renewed commitment to the sport.

After the
knockout, he called out Froch. Quite honestly, I don't think that DeGale is
ready for that type of battle yet. Gonzales was certainly a capable challenger
but he is still a few levels below Froch. If DeGale is gung-ho in shooting
for a title, I think that Sakio Bika is his best bet. Although Bika can be
rough and packs a punch, he's essentially a straight-line fighter. DeGale would
have a good chance to box and outmaneuver him. But let's leave matchmaking for another day. At least DeGale has made the boxing world
care about him again; that's an excellent start.